Category Archives: Sports

Johanna Long’s Entry into NASCAR is only the Beginning

Posted on by
3

Long (center) and her #70 team

The majority of the NASCAR news in 2012 has focused on Danica Patrick’s full-time run in the Nationwide Series. It is becoming more and more difficult to avoid articles and discussion of her entry into the sport. But there is another driver gaining attention and chances are you have never heard of her. Her name is Johanna Long, and she is also competing in the NASCAR Nationwide Series. Sports Illustrated‘s Tim Tuttle asked in 2010, “Could Johanna Long be NASCAR’s next Danica Patrick?” While the comparisons between Long and Patrick are inevitable, there are some major differences. Long has had a successful career that propelled her into the Nationwide Series. Patrick seems to have chosen to move to the Nationwide Series because her career in IRL was not materializing. While all the focus has been about Patrick, Long has been working to improve as a new driver and as the lone driver for a new race team.

Johanna Long is from Pensacola, Florida and began racing go carts at age 8. A the age of 13, she began to race Legend Cars at Sunny South Speedway in Mobile, Alabama. A year later, Long was racing Pro Late Models. In her second season racing Pro Late Models, Long won a number of races and become the first female, and youngest ever, Pro Late Model track champion at Five Flags Speedway in Pensacola. In 2009, still only 16, Long ran a season of 38 races and racked up 5 wins, 18 top five finishes, and 27 top tens leading her to the Blizzard Series Champion in the Super Late Model cars at Five Flags Speedway. Long also made two ARCA series starts in 2009, preparing her for the next level of competition and an introduction to the NASCAR circuit. In 2010, Long won the famed Snowball Derby in Pensacola and made seven starts in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. In 2011, Long ran 17 races in the truck series securing a career best 11th place finish at Texas Motor Speedway.

Long on track in Daytona

In the Nationwide Series in 2012, Long plans to run 21 races for ML Motorsports based in Warsaw, Indiana. The team, owned by Mary Louise Miller, is famous for its cars in the ARCA series, has not completed in the Nationwide Series for a few years. Long’s sponsors for the season include Foretravel Motorcoach, Race Fuel Energy Drink, Keen Parts, Inc., Biomet, Flexaust, and Wish for our Heroes. She is the youngest female driver to compete in the Nationwide Series. As she faces a number of Nationwide Series regulars and Sprint Cup Series drivers, Long has set goals for herself in 2012. Like her 2007 run in the Pro Late Models, this year is about seat time, experience, and patience. In a recent interview, Long expressed this sentiment, “I feel like getting more experience is going to make us better as a team. And we’re going to start getting those better finishes, but I feel it’s all about progression. I feel like if we progress each and every week, it’s going to be a good year. We just gotta keep on doing that. Yeah you want some top-15 finishes, and you wanna do better each weekend, but it’s gonna come.”

As one of two female drivers in the series, Long has been overshadowed by Danica Patrick, but this is actually good for Long and ML Motorsports. As Patrick continues to struggle to adjust to the Nationwide Series, Long and her team can quietly improve each week with the help of former Nationwide Series Champion David Green. So far, she has been very consistant, with an average finish of 23rd after eight races. Johanna’s next race will be June 16 in Michigan.

2012 Stats

I encourage everyone to support Johanna Long. Shop in the ML Motorsports team store, root for her on race day, and let her know you support her. It is not easy to for any driver to make it into NASCAR, but it has been more difficult for female drivers. I believe that Long has the talent and patience to have a successful NASCAR career and will make a profound impact on the sport. As with many small teams, however, ML Motorsports has limited funds and sponsorship, and I would like to see Long run a full Nationwide schedule in 2013. As of right now, it appears her schedule will once again be limited, but as her profile increases, she will attract more sponsorship. Talented drivers are what make NASCAR exciting, and as this young woman continues to prove herself I will be eagerly watching.

Show your support for Long by join her Fan Club, following her Blog, following her on Twitter and liking her Facebook page.

Tiger Woods Wins First PGA Tournament since 2009

Posted on by
Reply

Tiger Woods won the Arnold Palmer Invitational by five shots over Graeme McDowell. Since Tiger fell from graces in 2009, many wondered if Tiger would ever be back to his previous form. These questions were amplified when Tiger withdrew from the Cadillac Championship two weeks ago. After two weeks off, many were surprised by Tiger’s performance over the past four days.

Today’s win is his seventh at Bay Hill and proof that Tiger is indeed back. Tiger will take a week off and will play in the Masters at Augusta April 5-8. Regardless of your opinion of Tiger, his success is important to the golf community as legions of fans tune in solely to watch Tiger play. I must say, I enjoyed watching golf on a Sunday afternoon!

Why Firing Spagnuolo is a Mistake for the Rams

Posted on by
1

Today, ESPN reported that the St. Louis Rams are going to fire their general manager, Billy Devaney, and head coach Steve Spagnuolo. Now, I have been a Rams fan for well over a decade (and a Saints fan for about five years), but I think this is one of the worst decisions made by St. Louis, well since giving QB Sam Bradford $70 million.

First off, I do not care about general manager Devaney, but Spags was not the problem. Obviously, he has a losing record, 10-30 in three season, but look at what he inherited. Three years ago he took over a team that had no offense, a weak defense, and not much of a special teams. When Spags was brought to St. Louis, the majority of the supporting coaching staff remained (the Coordinators have been replaced over the past three years). That was mistake number one. Spags should have been able to build a new coaching staff.

The second mistake made by the Rams was in 2010. The drafting of Sam Bradford excited Rams fans for a few months, but it became apparent that the offensive line was still weak. A high price QB is nothing without an offensive line. The problem? Bradford’s high price tag tied the hands of the Rams. They could not afford any big name players and RB Steven Jackson needs help.

The third issue came with the issue over the Rams ownership shortly after Spags’ arrival in St. Louis. The turmoil certainly made things much more difficult for the coaching staff, players, and general management.

Finally, lets look back. Dick Vermiel was an impressive coach, but was only in St. Louis from 1997 – 1999. Mike Martz had a good record…at first, but once the “dreamteam” broke up, he left in 2005. Since then, the Rams have gone through (counting Spags) four head coaches, Joe Vitt (2005), Scott Linehan (2006-2008), Jim Haslett (2008), and Spags (2009-2011). Do you see a trend? They obviously are impatient with their coaching staff. These head coaches could not work a miracle, but life is not like The Little Giants. A team made up of mostly mediocre players will lose games in the NFL.

The Rams have had a dismal decade and have gone through a number of coaching changes. Instead of placing the blame on Steve Spagnuolo, the Rams need to accept the fact that they have multiple problems. They do not have enough big name players, they lack proper management, and they gambled on a QB that limited their cash to acquire other players.

Everyone likes to blame the head coach for a teams failures, but there are almost always a variety of problems. Problems that the head coach has no control over.

I blame the general managent and the owner, Stan Kroenke (along with previous owners), for not knowing how to manage the team’s money, roster, and coaching staff. I was not thrilled when I learned Kroenke was taking majority stake in the team because his interests are spread too thin (he also owns  Denver Nuggets of the NBA, Colorado Rapids of Major League Soccer, Colorado Avalanche of the NHL, Colorado Mammoth of the National Lacrosse League). If changes are not made in the management, Rams fans are going to continue to use the head coach as a scapegoat and they are going to continue to the trend of replacing the head coach every few years.

UPDATE: It’s official. Rams owner E. Stanley Kroenke issued the following statement this morning.

“I would like to personally thank Steve and Billy for their dedication to the St. Louis Rams organization over the past several seasons. This was a difficult decision for many reasons. We have tremendous respect for Steve and Billy as people and football professionals.

“No one individual is to blame for this disappointing season and we all must hold ourselves accountable. However, we believe it’s in the best interest of the St. Louis Rams to make these changes as we continue our quest to build a team that consistently competes for playoffs and championships. We wish Steve, Billy and their families the very best in the future and thank them again for their commitment to our organization and the city of St. Louis.”

Source: ESPN

Tiger Woods Earns First Win in Two Years

Posted on by
Reply

After a two year drought, Tiger Woods has won the Chevron World Challenge in style. Woods went onto the 17th hole on Sunday one stroke behind American Zach Johnson. Woods birdied the 17th to tie with Johnson for a shootout on the 18th. Woods’s birdie and Johnson’s par on the 18th was enough for Tiger to claim the victory. Tiger’s win was not surprising as he had been near the top of the leader board the entire weekend.

In interviews throughout the weekend, Tiger expressed that he felt more prepared for this tournament than he had for any other in the last two years, and it showed. Tiger’s stats were not the most steller, but they were enough. He said he felt focused and that he was looking forward to a full schedule in 2012, and I think golf fans are as well.

Kevin Harvick Inc. to Shut Down

Posted on by
Reply

Kevin Harvick announced this week that the Nationwide Series cars fielded by KHI this year will become part of Richard Childress Racing next season.  That left many fans wondering if KHI would continue in Camping World Truck Series.  In an interview today, Harvick confirmed the truck teams will also cease to exist after this season.  The news has shocked the racing community since KHI has won 39 races and 2 championships in the last nine years.  In the interview Harvick said, “I had to tell all 140 of my employees what was going on. I told them on Wednesday. They will have a chance to get a job at RCR with the merger, but we dont know how many.”  He admits that the hardest part of telling driver of the #33 truck and long-time friend, Ron Hornaday that he would have to find another ride for the 2012 season.

Kevin and DeLana Harvick founded KHI in 2001 and began in the Truck Series.  Slowly, they built up their team and expanded into the Nationwide Series.  KHI has had success in both series, but especially in the Truck series with Hornaday.  A four time Truck series Champion, Hornaday won two of those championships with KHI in 2007 and 2009.  For the 2011 season, KHI fields the #2 Chevrolet driven by a variety of drivers, #8 Chevrolet driven by Nelson Piquet Jr., and the #33 Chevrolet driven by Hornaday.  In the Nationwide Series, the #2 Chevrolet driven by Elliot Sadler and the #33 Chevrolet driven by a variety of drivers.  Bot the #2 and #33 Nationwide cars will move to RCR for the 2012 season.

I have been to KHI two times in the past year and Kevin and DeLana put together a great program.  It is sad to see them go, but as Harvick stated, ”It’s a tough model, business-wise. We’ve scrimped and scraped and got the sponsorship and things that you need, and GM has been a great supporter of everything that we’ve done. But from a business standpoint, sometimes you just have to make the decisions as to what you want to do, and for us it just didn’t make sense.”  Kevin wants to focus more on his Sprint Cup Series career.

Source: NASCAR

Congratulations Team Corvette

Posted on by
Reply

Team Corvette has won the GTE class at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in France.  The number 73 Corvette Racing C6.R ZR1 finished first ahead of the Ferrari 458 Italia.  Corvette 73 was driven to victory by Olivier Beretta, Tommy Milner, and Antonio Garcia.  Team Corvette’s second entry, the number 74 Corvette, was forced to retire early after crashing while leading.

Congratulations to Corvette Racing!

A Disloyal Fan

Posted on by
1

Going to my first NASCAR race was quite an experience.  Races at Martinsville are always exciting and yesterday’s did not disappoint.  Kevin Harvick won, my first race and my favorite driver wins, and I missed it.  I left early because the crowd was beginning to thin out.  Harvick was running mid-pack at the time.  After I left, Harvick’s team played pit strategy and took only two tires.  This moved Harvick up in the running order.  As he said in Victory Lane, the car came to life!

I am deeply depressed that I missed Harvick’s victory and I plan to go to the Martinsville race in October to make up for it.  Here are a few things I am going to do differently to make my experience better: 1. Different Seating.  I sat in the fourth row off Turn 4 on the front stretch.  The sound of 43ish cars accelerating off the corner for 400 laps has really affected my hearing (temporarily of course).  Which bring me to number 2. Better ear protection. Ear plugs did not keep the sound of the cars from affecting my hearing.  A headset probably would have been better.  3. Strong sunscreen. My arms are burnt to the point of discomfort.  4. Bring a friend.  I went by myself and that was a mistake.  I literally got bored watching the race by myself, but I could not find anyone who wanted to get up early to get there.

So, if you go to a race sit about half way up in the grandstand.  It will be easier on your ears, but you will also be able to see more of the track.  Wear ear protection, I wish I had used better protection.  Wear strong sunscreen because sitting there for approximately 5 hours had taken its toll on my arms, and do not go alone.  It is always more fun to go to events in groups.

I will go to a race again.  I am too big a fan not too, but you can learn from my rookie mistakes.

Here are some of the photos I took, videos coming soon!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.